exercise of a profession, to which he appears to have been early destined. He received the rudiments of his education at the grammar-school of Newcastle, then under the care of the Rev. Dr. Moises, a clergyman of the church of England, but a man of great liberality of sentiment, and who had deservedly acquired a very high reputation for the rapid progress of his scholars*.

In this situation he gave early indications of a distinguished character. Before he had attained the age of five, he had made so considerable a proficiency in the Latin language, that he was deemed fully competent to enter upon Cæsar's Commentaries. rapidity of attainment, the consequence of a superior capacity united to a more than ordinary share of application, was not accompanied, as is usually the case, with that

This

*This gentleman has had the honour of educating several, who afterward attained to very considerable eminence in life, among whom may be numbered the present Lord Chancellor, and his brother Sir William Scott.

gravity of temper and conduct, that seems to forbid a participation in the sports and exercises congenial to the period of youth: on

the

contrary, he possessed all the characteristic cheerfulness of a boy, and entered with more than common ardour into the juvenile amusements of his school-fellows. For his rapid progress in school learning he was no doubt greatly indebted to the judicious care and attention of his master, who appears early to have distinguished him from the rest of his pupils, and to have bestowed upon him a more than ordinary share of attention.

In a visit to Newcastle about four years ago, our author availed himself of the opportunity of calling on this respectable character, then in extreme old age. The meeting between the venerable tutor and his early pupil was singularly cordial. The Doctor spoke of him as of one, whom he was proud to enumerate among his scholars, and of whom he had early formed the high expectations, which he had lived to see realized. A few

letters,

After

letters, with which the Doctor had occasionally favoured the author in after life, are strongly expressive of the continued interest that he felt in the welfare of his pupil, and the favourable opinion he always entertained of his character and talents. the publication of one of his fast sermons in the year 1782, which was dedicated to Mr. Pitt, at that time the champion of the whigs and the zealous promoter of reform, the Doctor, in a letter to the author, declares, that he had perused it with great eagerness; "for though," adds he, “our spe"culative opinions are different both in po"litics and religion, this difference could

never conceal from me great ingenuity, "invincible honesty, and deep learning; and "then 'twas impossible but that my best "wishes would be interested in the prospe

ct

rity of the possessor of such talents. The "address to the minister is sensible, intrepid, "and yet sufficiently civil. The part of the

sermon, which relates to the doctrine of a "superintending Providence, is well argued, b 3 "and

" and handsomely illustrated from history; " and indeed through the whole composi❝tion there appears to be an indignant dis"dain of vice, and such zeal for reforma

tion, as must have had a powerful effect upon your hearers. &c."

Under the care of this excellent man he continued till the age of ten, when he was sent to Durham, in order to be placed under the immediate direction of his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Walker, minister of the dissenting congregation at that place, a gentleman of considerable eminence in his profession, but who, from the freedom of his speculative opinions, seems to have been considered by some of his contemporary ministers as entertaining unsound and heterodox tenets. The presbyterians had not yet altogether emancipated themselves from the errours and religious prejudices, which in former times had so strongly marked the character of their secc; and many of those controverted points, the truth of which cannot be clearly established upon

any

any express revelation of Scripture, but which had been formerly considered as essential articles of faith, were still in some measure regarded as the necessary terms of admission to a ministerial communion. That simple and rational conception of christianity, which admits of nothing as essential to the office of a christian minister but a belief in it's divine origin, and a practical adherence to it's precepts, and which regards all other disputed doctrines as the speculations of fallible men, as mere human inventions altogether foreign to it's genuine meaning and simplicity, had not yet superseded the use of those particular creeds and confessions of faith, which were deemed to contain whatever was sound and orthodox in christian belief. From the influence of these contracted notions of religion he was happily freed in having his education intrusted to the care of his uncle, who impressed no bias on his mind in favour of any particular tenets, but left it wholly free to adopt those opinions, which should be the result of a rational, manly, and impartial inquiry.